and I would drive 500 miles, and I would drive 500 more...

About a year ago, I made a whirlwind roadtrip to Williamsburg, Virginia and back, prompting my friend Paul to make a comment about how of course I'd travel 20 mph in my sleep, in response to me telling him I'd driven about 750 miles in 36 hours (see the subtitle of this blog!). The tradition continues.

From the time I got my driver's license, I have apparently been known as the girl who would drive a few hours to see someone for a little while. I didn't realize I'd been typecasted this way till this weekend, but apparently it's super true. Some of my earliest roadtrips were to meet up with some of my friends who I used to go to summer camp with (Dan, Greg, Sarah and Alice). The last time we all saw each other was New Year's Day 2004. Greg and I currently live closer than ever, and he recently challenged me to meet up with him before New Year's 2010. I accepted, and raised him one-- we get the band back together! (No, we didn't actually have a band, but that would have been awesome.) We tried our best, but the stars didn't quite align, mostly because Dan can't read a calendar, but we like him anyway and as a result, hung out with him.

I drove out to Abington, PA to meet Dan and Greg for lunch on the 26th. It was great to catch up! The weather was cold, rainy and overall miserable, and if the stereotype about me is that I drive a lot, the stereotype about Dan is that he's never dressed for the weather. That photo from 2004 is us pretending to be Mummers on Mummers Day. Please note, Dan is wearing a blanket that I often keep in my car, because on chilly New Year's Day, he did not have a sweatshirt or jacket. He met Greg and me for lunch and a beer and had a scarf, but no coat or umbrella, so we stayed at the restaurant for about 3 hours. Good visit!

Straight after that visit, I headed south to Fairfax, Virginia, to celebrate my college roommate Brittany's engagement to her longtime boyfriend Adam. Hooray! I ended up driving back to Toms River that night, total mileage for the day was just shy of 500 miles. The trip was planned poorly-- I expected to be meeting Dan on the 27th but he was flying out of Philly that day; I thought the party was in the afternoon on the 26th, so I didn't think it was totally ludicrous to drive back that night... ah well. I got home alive at 3.30AM. Poorly planned, but well enjoyed!

The next day, the rest of the stars aligned and I saw the rest of my old camp friends. I drove to the Rumson-Fairhaven area to pick up Sarah. This was a trip I made many times in high school-- Alice is from the same town. This, and me telling Sarah of the previous day's adventures, prompted her to inform me that yes, driving everyone and staying in touch with everyone is kind of my M.O. That's not the worst character trait ever, I think?

Sarah and I took NJ Transit from my apartment by Rutgers, and successfully got on the same train as Greg, who was coming from the Hamilton station. We met up with Alice when she got off work and headed down to the Village to a place called The Blind Tiger, where we enjoyed a few rounds. Small and loud, but good beer selection and great company!

Beers of the travels found here. Mostly wheat beers, which I really like!

Then I stayed still and caught up on sleep for a day.

Then was the annual Johnsonburg reunion. I did a little bit of volunteering this summer, and probably wouldn't have gone up, but I drove my friend Tim, who worked there the full summer and knew way more of the current summer staff than I do and also had an interview (same Timmy I visited in Minnesota). It was nice to spend some time with him since he has a short winter break. And I got to visit with a few other people who live at camp who I've missed. All in all, another good day.

Total mileage since Christmas: about 850. So not quite 500 miles plus 500 more, but definitely have not been sitting still. I'm heading out to my brother and sister-in-law's in Abington for New Year's and will be spending a couple of days in Virginia after that, so more travels on the way!

Snow, don'tcha know.

Ok, I haven't actually heard anyone here in Minnesota say "don'tcha know" but they do totally have exactly the accent I thought they would. I dig it.

So what am I doing in Minnesota, with a week left of classes and plenty of work to be done?

My friend Timmy attends St. Olaf College in Northfield, just a little south of Minneapolis. They have a super major Christmas music festival every year. He was able to score an extra pair of tickets and kindly gave them to our now retired choir director and myself. So I'm out here listening to incredible music left and right and generally hanging out for a few days.

Don't get me wrong, every time he has a rehearsal or something, I've been grading papers galore. I did a lot of work leading up to this trip, and am actually in far better shape than I thought upon my return to finish up the semester just fine. I opted to leave my laptop home (am currently borrowing Tim's while he sings in night 3 of Christmasfest, which his parents are attending) and have enjoyed the change of pace. St. Olaf is out in the middle of nowhere-- time seems to go a little slower (it also helps that my body just never adjusts to time change, even an hour difference).

Also, St. Olaf is such a great school. It's a small liberal arts school run by the Lutherans (Norwegian ones, to be specific). They have an outstanding music program (though much to my dismay there is no geography). It's got great campus dining. AND MY FAVORITE PART, CLEARLY: so environmentally friendly. Everyone seems very concious of turning off lights and recycling stuff. The sandwich place on campus serves everything on real plates, with real silverware. Their building renovations include a lot of local, renewable resources and/or recycled supplies. The bathrooms have those magic flush toilets that you have a short flush/long flush option (use your brain, you can figure out why). Also, all of the toilet paper, paper towels and napkins are made completely from recycled fibers. And finally, there is a very lovely wind turbine at the edge of the campus that apparently generates 1/3 of the energy for the campus (which makes me wonder why they don't just build 2 more, but at least they're trying!).

Other things about Northfield: it snowed the first two days I got here and the temperature hasn't been above freezing. The town motto is "Cows, Colleges, Contentment" even though there's way more corn than cows. Northfield is also home to the Malt O Meal factory. It smells like Cocoa Puffs here constantly!

Beer of the trip: Summit Extra Pale Ale. I'm not usually crazy about extra pale beers, but Summit is a Minnesota brew that my uncle had at Thanksgiving (in NJ) and it was fine then, so it was ok now too.

I fly home tomorrow morning to Newark Airport. My home church has its Christmas concert tomorrow night. I'll be up there in the alto 2 section singing Handel's Messiah and other carols, twice in a row. Intense. I have just enough time to get home, shower, and make it to warm up, assuming my flight isn't delayed. All along though, my choir director has joked that surely there wouldn't be a problem in Minnesota's end; if it snows, they know what to do. It's Newark that would fail under any sort of weather pressure. So Newark, listen up. I'm counting on you.

Despite going from 60 degree weather in NJ (yes, unseasonably warm) to 20 degree weather in MN, I am really enjoying this trip and it's allowing me to relax a little before the absolute final stretch of the semester. After all, after this I only have one semester left... it'll be a pretty busy spring semester so I'm not sure when I'll travel next!

a more crystal clear image of NOVA

Live, from Northern Virginia!

I'm in Virginia for the weekend for a wedding (Alison and Scott, Mary Washington Geography 2007). They are lovely people and super wonderful together, and I couldn't be happier for them!

But it was also a great excuse to visit Virginia again. I love New Jersey. I love New Jersey a lot. But there will always be a special place in my heart for Virginia.

ANYWAY. My good friend Paul was kind enough to put me up for tonight here in Alexandria, VA. In fact, he took a half day so we could hang out in Washington this afternoon. We walked to the Metro from his apartment and didn't do much in D.C., just took a long walk around the mall and up to The George Washington University before taking the Metro back to NOVA to meet another friend of ours, Jill, in Crystal City for happy hour. Beer of the day: Backdraft Brown Ale. Really, really good. And Crystal City Sports Pub is really nice. Beautiful ADD inducing setup for games. Good food. And most importantly, decent selection of drafts.

ANYWAY. I've always had this rather negative perception of NOVA. In fact, I frequently say that if I end up in Washington after I graduate, I would live in Washington if at all possible rather than northern VA. The traffic is terrible. There's too many people. It's too expensive. Too suburby. I hated driving through northern Virginia to get to Mary Washington, and that was cutting through as quickly and quietly as possible. Well, shame on me. I'm always the one telling other people to avoid the interstate, and here I am, delightfully surprised by Paul's neighborhood.

He lives just a few minutes away from the interstate, between the really hoity toity area and the really opposite of that area. His digs are nice and his rent is reasonable for what he's got. There are food establishments within walking distance. Very awesomely, he is only a block away from the Metro, which means easy access to lots of other really wonderful places in the D.C. Metro area. I still view the overwhelming majority of NOVA to be really overwhelmingly crowded and expensive (weird, since I come from Jersey), but am happy to discover a more walkable, quiet area hiding in the midst of it all. Maybe I could handle something like this someday? But in the meantime, I'm grateful to my friend and his couch.

a New York state of mind...

A few nights ago, I went to see Sondre Lerche play at the Bowery Ballroom in the city. I'd never been before. It's a neat little venue in downtown Manhattan, near Chinatown. While kind of bummed that he didn't go on till 10PM and my dudefriend and I had to catch a bus up at Port Authority at 11.50, I really enjoyed Mr. Lerche's music-- he's just a Norwegian guy who loves his guitar and singing.

However, that 11.50 bus has a bigger story to it. Tom and I took the bus into the city from Saddle Brook, where he lives, and got our return trip ticket upon our arrival at Port Authority, figuring on leaving the show around 11.15 to get back. We left just moments before 11.15, got to the subway station, bought new subway cards... and missed the D train by moments. Literally. Moments.

And then we waited for the next one.

And waited.

And waited.

More than 20 minutes later, another orange train heading north came, but there was no way we'd get to Penn Station, transfer to the A, C or E heading north, get to Port Authority, and get up four stories before 11.50.

We didn't get there in time. Thankfully, another bus left sort of in the same direction within half an hour, and my dear dear friend Heather was kind enough to come out and pick us up. The next morning was, after all, Tom's first day back in the classroom (he's a high school math teacher).

Why do I tell you of this mistimed journey? Well, I find that more often than not I somehow screw up leaving the city, whether it be by missing a bus, or a bus leaving early, or missing the last train... but really, it got me thinking. What about all of those stories about people who were running late to work, or whose transit was running late, or something came up that prevented them to getting to the World Trade Center 8 years ago tomorrow? Sometimes a couple of seconds is all it takes to throw you off. Tom and I sprinted up the stairs to that D train, getting to the platform just as it pulled away. How frustrating when he had to wake up and teach the next morning! And how frustrating was it for all of the people who spilled coffee on themselves and had to change, or whose cars wouldn't start, or whose kids got sick and had to stay home from school... just amazing.

I think it's important to remember the day and the people, but I also think it's really important to move forward. Life goes on. People go to work tomorrow, or people like me have the day off (don't worry, I'll be doing work, I have plenty to do for EDGY this semester, among other things), or people have birthdays (happy 25th Meggo!)... and through it all, NYC will still be there, not sleeping...

home again

Long, challenging trip home, but I arrived safely Thursday night.

Things I do actually miss about Mexico:

• Manzana Lift- I've never been a big soda drinker, but carbonated apple juice at the end of a long day of work? SO refreshing.
• Bugambilias- We've been over this.
• trying new foods straight off the tree/vine/plant/whatever- including, but not limited to pineapples, tamarinds, dog balls fruit, various types of oranges, coconut, guanabana, sugarcane, passionfruit...

There were plenty of other things I really enjoyed, but it's nice to be home. I had milk with dinner that night. I had Guinness last night. I've been to the beach. Life is good. I'm home for a week before heading out to a suburb of Pittsburgh to lead a large group of junior high kiddos on a housing repair mission trip.

Tree of the forever: the ugly ol' pitch pine, so near and dear to my heart!

dia ultimo

Last day in Mexico! My bus departs from Chetumal at 11.30PM for Cancun, about a six hour trip. My flight is at noon tomorrow.

This morning I woke up at 5.30 without an alarm. I was able to doze for a little while longer, but have been up for good since around 6. I guess I'll sleep like a champion on that bus.

This morning we went to the market so I could wander around, admire all of the tropical produce and take a few photos. We went out for empanadas for brunch. Apparently, typical Yucatan (the state and sort of the peninsula) food is empanadas made with chaya, a kind of leaf, and filled with cheese. We enjoyed these and some agua de jamaica (a sort of juice made with the jamaica flower, aka hibiscus tea according to a quick google search) before heading to Ecosur for the day. Shortly we'll be having a Skype conference with my advisor. In the meantime, we're having cake in the work room for Alex's birthday (this space really is like the cart lab at Mary Washington!) The rest of the day? Lunch at Ecosur, as cooked by Doña Rosa. I guess I should pack. (We know I have a history of doing this last minute, see: before this trip, before Canada trip, etc.) I bet my father, who will be picking me up at the airport, would also appreciate me showering before I depart. We may have dinner with Birgit (our EDGY person at Ecosur, if you recall). Just little things like these for the rest of today.

It's been yet another pretty excellent adventure.

Tree of the day: casuarina. I've had my eye on this all along. It's an invasive exotic... but it looks like a sort of pine tree. We know I love my pine trees, so this is in honor of me returning to my homeland, located snugly between the ocean and the Pine Barrens.

last day in the field

If I've seen any trend in the bracken so far, it's that the stupid fern doesn't grow well in dense forests. (I call it stupid because it's mean and kills everything else growing near it and cows and people's livelihoods.) Since Petcacab and Polinkin are a forestry ejido, I didn't expect to see a whole lot of the stuff. However, no easy day for us. The first patch that we visited took an hour to drive to down a 22km (that's about 12-13 miles) long dirty road. It was enormous and the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it rather than drive along it. It was a pretty hot day, and many ticks later (ugh, gross) we made it through and travelled back down that road to get to the other patches. We came to another large agricultural plot that had some bracken mixed in it, and again the ejidotarios insisted we hike through it. Alex dropped us off at the start and drove the truck to meet us at the end. It was around 1PM, and the sun was draining my will to live. Just as my head started pounding and I thought I couldn't possibly sweat anymore, we got to the end of the patch, where Alex was waiting with water and the announcement: this was the last patch.

The last patch!

I finished my field work!

With 24 hours to spare!

To celebrate, we checked out Belize's free zone and later went out for dinner in Chetumal. The original intention was to have Chinese food, because how hilarious would it be for the American girl to order her dinner in Chinese, in Mexico? But two of the Chinese retaurants were closed, and the third didn't serve my kind (vegetarians). We settled on quesadillas and beers, which were really, really good. Beer of the day: Modelo's Leon. This brings me to an important point: why hasn't there been a beer of the day in Mexico, like there was in Canada?

I like beer. I like trying new beers, especially local beers. That was my goal in Canada. Here in Mexico though, there is little variance, and no such thing as local breweries that I've found. I've tried plenty of beers, most of which you can find in the US: Sol, Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Modelo, but they're all Mexican lager. Nothing else. I've tried a few "dark" beers, aka Mexican lager with a drop of molasses in them: Negra Modelo, Modelo's Leon, Bohemia Classica. But really, little variance. And, while one cold beer is very refreshing after a hard day of work, the second beer combined with the heat and humidity made me understand why I see so many people laying around in hammocks in the afternoons.

This brings me to my next point: aside from my family and my friends, what am I most excited for upon my return to NJ in just a few more days? It's a toss up if I'm more excited about a cold glass of milk with dinner (they only sell the boxed Parmalat-type milk here, which did not agree with my stomach at all), or a cold Guinness. The funny part about Guinness being one of my favorite beers? I wasn't crazy about it when I tried it for the first time in Northern Ireland. But I digress. Regardless, being in Mexico has been a really great experience (except maybe the scar I now have on my neck and chin), but I am looking forward to being back in New Jersey (for reasons beside Guinness, of course!).

tree of the day: the lovely ficus in Polinkin's town square

I should be working right now but I don't feeeeeel like it!

Today was a productive, albeit frustrating second to last day in the field. Finally made it to Los Divorciados. I suspect that's one of the less poor ejidos; this assumption based not only on the facts that there are tin roofs and more recent paint jobs on the houses, but also that you can't see all of the stray dogs' ribs. These have been frustrating people to work with. Not 16 hours after we visited to get permission to work did we find ourselves there with no one aware, much less available to help us with the damage transect and bracken work. Members of our team have now visited a total of five times, but the work is done. Our ejidotario was a bit frustrating though. Around noon, he told us there was no more bracken. It was hot and sunny today, so we went to a store in town to get some cold sodas. As we pulled up, he said there was still another road full of bracken we had to visit. So we skipped the Coca Colas and went back to work for nearly four more hours. The time spent working is not the problem. The ejidotario said at nearly every patch of bracken, "This is the last one, but there's one more down there, too." Arghrghrakghdfg.

Also, can we discuss this photo?

Regardless, it's done! One ejido left! Petcacab and Polinkin! Tomorrow!

Tree of the day: ramon, easily recognized by its buttressed trunk

The skies are clear so perhaps I will take my field notes to the roof to type and think about...

My apologies in advance.

Happy Fathers Day! Hi Dad!

Not much to report here. It poured all morning. Everyone else has gone to the ruins at Calakmul, which are three hours away, so I opted out in favor of getting some work done at a leisurely pace and strolling around town to see what I can see later on. I'm happy with my decision, except for one thing. And this is why I'm writing.

I went back to bed for a little while after they left, and when I got up and walked out of my room, I felt a squish under my bare foot. It's been pouring for days, remember? So I figured it was a wet leaf that lost its way, or maybe some stray mud.

Then I looked.

It was an enormous cockroach. Emphasis on "was".

Thanks for reading, I couldn't suffer alone.

(At least it wasn't one of our little lizard friends, then I would have been upset in an entirely different way, kind of like when I ran over the prairie dog in Saskatchewan, which we never need to talk about again.)

Tree of the day: our coconut palm in the backyard, which has sustained some major branch damage after this morning's storm

Edited to add: Great to talk to you today, various family members who were spending Fathers Day together!

Ride, captain, ride upon your mystery ship!

Guess what it did today? There's a tie for rainy day photo, although one is foreshadowing and one is... aftershadowing? Is that a word? It is now.

It did rain again, though it thankfully held off until after we finished the ejido of the day, Aaron Merino Fernandez. We had a plethora of people in the truck this morning, which I was quite worried about: myself, Irene, Juan-Pablo, Angel, Alberto and the ejidotario makes more people than we have seats. I didn't like the idea of forcing anyone to sit in the back with the threat of rain, even the interns, who are meant to be treated poorly (right? But they're good boys. They're helping me. They're nice.) But Angel and Alberto volunteered to sit in the back while we drove from plot to plot. I'm the only driver left here and Alex had the day off, so I had a good time (and thus, the interns had a good time) sliding through some intense mud puddles in the Hilux. It was a bit more like sailing a ship than driving a truck at times, but I didn't get stuck or stall!

After we finished at Aaron Merino Fernandez, we headed out to the last ejido on my list. We've been having trouble finding anyone to ask permission to work. Well, today we had better luck, finding the entire leadership board of Petcacab and Polinkin. (Of note: two ejidos in one!) The comisario, his treasurer, secretary, security guy and I don't remember what the fifth guy's job was? together granted us permission to work there on Tuesday. That plus Los Divorciados on Monday means that I'll visit everywhere on my list before I head home!

tree of the day: cedro. Have I already picked that one? It's cedar, but it's very, very different from cedar as we know it in the United States.

FLASHback, shout out to JACK

Today has not been terribly productive, unless you count that I trimmed my fingernails. We were unable to get permission to work at any ejidos, but we have hopefully figured out a plan that allows me to finish my work before I go.

Rainy day report #5: It hasn't rained in Chetumal (yet) today, though it will pretty much any minute now (it just got DARK), but we caught a really awesome storm, complete with some phenomenal cloud to ground lightning, while out on the road this morning.

This made me think, about a year ago, I was also driving up to a quite apocalyptic looking storm somewhere in the prairies of Canada. So I decided to take a gander at our photos, and it turns out I was off by a day, but that doesn't much matter since it was pouring here yesterday too.

Tree of the day goes to the cecropia. It's a fast grower, so any time you've got a reforested area, you see these guys sticking waaaay up above all of the other secondary vegetation. They get tree of the day because I bet they are the first ones to get hit by lightning. Added bonus: they look like they could be straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.

t minus one week

The rains continue! The good news is, it is no longer eight trillion degrees out, and I don't have to reapply sunscreen every thirteen minutes. The not so good news includes the intense humidity, the loss of regular access to our rooftop office, and the mosquitoes.

The bracken continues! Yesterday was a long day spent at Ecosur, working out the details of my last week here, among other things. There was a bit of a faux-pas with some files, which lead to some confusion about what I needed to do (something like double digits more ejidos in seven days)... but a little bit of decision making later (yes, I am capable of doing that when necessary), it looked like I needed to visit five more of these farming villages to check out their bracken situations. Today I did two with the help of Alex and my interns. Two down, three to go? Seven more days? I might actually have time to be a tourist a little bit!

Things to do before leaving Mexico (feel free to make other suggestions):

• visit the market to take pictures
• go to Belize*
• acquire tequila for my brother and his fiancee (anyone who knows me knows this is true, and that in no way is said tequila for my own consumption)
• clean the mud off my boots so they can reenter the United States (current status: biohazard)
  
• probably some other shenanigans

I guess I didn't really think that list through very far. Oh well.

*Since it's down to myself, Irene, Juan-Pablo and Alex with US, Venezuelan,Colombian and expired Mexican passports, respectively, we cannot actually all go to Belize-- they need visas. Well, and Alex needs to renew his passport. Since I don't speak Spanish, I'm a bit wary of going alone, but there's a free zone 15 minutes from the house... I'm determined to go there! ANOTHER COUNTRY IS 15 MINUTES AWAY! Come on, you should have me figured out by now!

inundable!

I will try not to inundable you with information about my last two days, but come on, the title is "inundable" (Spanish for inundated, or flooded... one of my many forestry/conservation vocab words)!

Yesterday was the last transect for Karen and me (the 19th of 20 in real life, though). We went out with a bang, literally! Around 75 meters out of 100 of assessing forest damage, the thunder that we'd been hearing rumble all morning decided it would be a good time to arrive over our heads and start raining, after 18 transects without any rain, in the rainy season. Ludicrous. It was a tough transect, too-- selva baja inundable (lowland inundated forest, lots of young trees, lots of brush, very wet, and lots and lots of bugs). Thankfully, we're equipt with waterproof field notebooks, which actually work! You can write on the pages in the rain. Nothing smears. Nothing runs, except the water. Incredible. Bracken was bracken, but it was really rainy for the rest of the day. I somehow came home more caked in mud than everyone else, despite all walking and working in the same places.

We had a farewell dinner out with Karen. Marco and I dropped her off at the bus station late last night; by the time I woke up, Juan-Pablo had arrived from Colombia, been picked up, and had settled into our casa on Av. Bugambilias.

Today, Alex and Irene went to finish the last transect in Los Divorciados while Marco and I took my pair of interns west to train them to do my work for the next six months. What's that? You are also surprised, shocken even, that I have been given a pair of interns? I know, me too! But it's true. I have two interns: Angel, the tall outgoing one who speaks a slight amount of English, and Alberto, the shorter rounder shyer one who did not say a single word in English. They are clearly buddies, but they're required this internship in order to graduate from college, so it's a nice mix of hilarity and productivity. Also, did I mention, they are going to collect data for me for the next six months?

I had a great time in the field today. Most of what I did was troubleshoot the form Marco and I wrote for the interns to collect information with, questions about land use and fire history and all of the other things I won't bore you with that my thesis will be about. Ahem. Anyway. We were at an ejido called Nicolas Bravo, which my advisor worked at quite a lot for her Phd dissertation, so everyone there knows and loves her. In fact, our ejidotario named his daughter after her. So they were all excited that I, Laura's student, was there.

The coolest part might have started with our ejidotario saying, "Oh, there's an old Maya house." We just drove past this crumbled house sitting atop a mound (the Maya liked to build up the land they built their structures on). That house is more than twice as old as the country which I hail from! Just sitting there, in the middle of the ejido! I learned the words in Spanish to inform the interns that "I am a student AND a tourist" before I took that photo. At the next plot, what do you know? More ruins! Unguarded, un-roped-off... Marco mentioned casually that I could go up and see them if I want, so I clearly climbed on top of them and did my intern-supervising from there.

It rained on and off throughout the day. The rest of it was spent getting filthy by walking through burned helechals (plots inundable-d with the helecho, which is Spanish for fern) and standing around on Maya mounds surveying the awesome landscape. Don't worry, I was sure to leave my camera in the truck for the last plot, when we stood on a particularly high mound that offered a complete panoramic view of the landscape and horizon. (I'm so dumb.)

The day ended in an intense workout to prevent Marco, the interns, and my untimely deaths in the torrential downpour. I was behind the wheel in the Chevy truck, which is about 10 years old and only marginally better than The Monster. Shifting that thing was a pretty intense physical workout to begin with, but driving in that storm was a big workout for my brain. The streets in and around Chetumal were inundable-d. Also, the Chevy had crappy windshield wipers and the vent system did nothing to defog the windshield. I drove into town at about half the speed limit, and we clearly survived without incident, as I'm writing about it all now. The streets are still flooded here even though the rain has mostly stopped, but we're all home safely and planning on relaxing a bit tonight: tomorrow is an Ecosur day, Marco's last day, and Juan-Pablo's birthday!

happy ever after in the market place

I have alluded to my adoration for local foods. Well, a good place to find local foods? Local markets.

Marco's dissertation research has to do with commodity exchange and how that ties into landscape changes. He arranged to go to the market this morning with Rossy, the woman who runs one of the food stands at Ecosur, and her husband Elias. After sitting home for a lot of yesterday and knowing I'd be sitting home for a lot of today again, I asked if I could tag along. It was really cool! When we met Rossy, Marco went to find her husband, and she said something in Spanish. I gave my very apologetic, "Lociento, no hablo Español" that I've gotten so good at. Her response? She asked, in Spanish, if Marco and I were speaking English. I told her yes, and then she apologized to me for not speaking English. What? We're in Mexico! She doesn't have to speak English!

(By the way, anyone want to take Español 101 this summer with me?)

Rossy and Elias were both very sweet, speaking Spanish slowly and in short sentences to make sure I was roughly getting what they were saying. They bought Marco and me fresh orange juice to enjoy while we shopped. At the market, there were all sorts of exciting fruits and vegetables, most of which I've become familiar with during my time here if I didn't already know. Marco was taking note of what was being sold, and asking where it came from. Most of the smaller vendors offered foods from within a few hours' drive, but the larger shops had things like apples! From Washington! and plums! from California! We also walked through the carneceria. For the few people in the universe whose Spanish is worse than mine, that's the meat shops. Meat hanging on hooks everywhere. Tons of dead chickens (because they're not too cute and not too bright, obviously). But, I followed Marco and Rossy and learned a lot about the foods from this region and how they're prepared.

I regret that I did not take a single picture at the market. I was trying not to be more of a spectacle than I already am while Marco was trying to do work for his dissertation. I'm hoping to make it back there to get a few photos before I head home.

Most of the rest of the day was spent at the house on Av Bugambilias working... and napping... I went for a walk in the evening for a while, which is when I decided the tree of the day needed to be lluvia de oras (golden raintree). There were some really threatening clouds in the sky, and I found it a lovely juxtaposition between the beautiful yellow flowers on these exotic ornamentals and the dark, fluffy clouds that have yet to let loose, but we suspect that they will within the next few hours...

Don't worry, this one is much shorter!

After telling you how kind and helpful everyone has been along our way, we were blown off by the comisario in Los Divorciados today (yes, that means "the divorcees" but I'll tell you about it when we actually go there to work). He didn't tell anyone else we were coming and was out of town at least all morning so we couldn't work. Irene and Alex will return on Tuesday while I'm out galavanting with Marco and my pair of interns, so I'll return at a later date.

So instead, we visited some Maya ruins in Chacchoben. They were delightful. We were the only ones there.

Tree of the day: ceiba.

Also, for everyone who kindly requested that I not catch swine flu while in Mexico, there are three confirmed cases at Rutgers... and I'm still flu-free in the Yucatan!

This is long, I know, I'm sorry. You can skip it. I won't know!

This blog is as much for my own memory as it is to let people know I'm alive and well and enjoying my travel shenanigans. What follows is long. Rambling. Stuff about trees. etc. Just so you know.

We returned this evening from our three night stay in Laguna Kana and are now 18/20 finished with what we were assigned to do here in the southern Yucatan. I would like to tell you mostly about two things: the kindness of the people we've worked and stayed with, and what you do in a town that doesn't have running water.

Pretty much everywhere we've gone, we've been met with kindness. Karen, Irene and I all agreed that even if some ejidotarios have made jokes about marrying us (especially when Alex isn't working with us), no one has ever been outright creepy. Pretty much everyone has worked really hard for us. Cutting a straight line through dense secondary growth with a machete in the Mexico heat is not easy! I was particularly surprised with our trip to Laguna Kana though. When we visited on Sunday to get permission, we asked a man if we could stay in his house while we worked in the three northernmost ejidos. He agreed-- he housed a team from Ecosur last year, too. His wife was away in Cancun visiting their daughter, who I understand may be handicapped in some way. When we arrived kind of late on Tuesday night, it turned out his wife was home, but they cleared out of the two room house and slept in hammocks next door so we could stay. I just thought that was really nice of them.

I like to think I'm pretty flexible and open to new life experiences, but I was not particularly prepared for the whole no- indoor- plumbing/ running water at all scenario. I'll spare you the details of how these things work (though I had to tell someone and my mom was kind enough to pick up the phone tonight!). I clearly survived and now have a better idea of how I'll survive living in a village in Africa for a while someday (I mean, what? We'll cross that bridge when we get there.). However, I thought I'd share what a town without running water does have: pretty forests, pretty night skies, and very little else to do, so also good night's sleep. I slept in a hammock all three nights, and did so much like a baby. It helps that I went to bed earlier than I do when I'm in Chetumal uploading photos and sharing my shenanigans with you all.

But back to that thing about the clear, gorgeous, billions-of-stars sky... it was awesome. Breathtaking, even. I told my mom about this on the phone too (I don't just tell her about how people sponge bathe over toilets when we talk), and she said I was pretty awed when I first noticed stars as a toddler. I imagine this was pretty much the same. I've been in rural places, I've seen bright starry nights. One of the nights in Laguna Kana, the power went out (yes, they have electricity but not water), and it was even more pronounced loveliness. Oh man. Words just can't describe, so I'll stop trying.

But now that this is nice and long anyway, some snippets of my starlit ponderings these past few nights whilst hanging out in the village without running water or anything else to do besides ponder things under a gorgeous starry sky:

• Apples. Think about the produce section at your local grocery store. What's exotic to you? Ok, probably nothing, because we get whatever we want in the US. Well, here, apples are exotic. They are shipped from places like Washington State. People here are crazy about their apples! We have apple flavored crackers, apple granola bars, apple soda...
• Toilet seats. Why don't most toilets in this country have them? We don't need to debate actually utilizing them or not, but it just looks strange.
• Chickens. It's so obvious why people (not me) eat them. They're really dumb, and rarely adorable. However, why is it that some have feathers and some in the same flock look ready to jump in a deep fryer? Do chickens get mange?
  
• Bugambilias. They are probably my favorite flowers I've seen here, and I figured out why. The flowers look more like extremely colorful little leaves than actual flowers, so it's like they're extremely beautiful little trees. And we know how I feel about trees.

Speaking of which, trees of the last few days, and then I'm really going to bed!:

• Tuesday: jabin. We see these everywhere. On Tuesday, in Bacalar, Karen explained to me very specifically how we so easily identify them all the time. I won't bore you. I recognize jabin now.
  
• Wednesday: in Laguna Kana, pucte, a huge tree down by the Laguna that I half climbed
  
• Thursday: in Yoactun, DEFINITELY the amapola
• today in Santa Maria Ponientte: I know the Pich was already mentioned, but come on, who can resist a bunch of grad students measuring the DBH of a giant, beautiful tree in the town square for fun first thing in the morning?

In conclusion, I'm still alive and well and loving trees. Did you notice my invasive bracken fern wasn't mentioned? That's because it barely exists up north!

back to Bacalar tomorrow

Not much to report here. We worked from home after several failed attempts to get permission to work on ejidos in the area. Tomorrow, we're doing damage transects and bracken hunting in Bacalar starting at 6.45AM! Thankfully that only means we have to leave here around 6.15. Oof. And at the end of the day? Not playing in the laguna, sadly. Shower, pack, and drive up north to work there for a few days. We got our tree tags today!

By the way, when I say "up north" I kind of mean central Quintana Roo, the state I've been living and working in. I work in the Southern Yucatan region. So we're going to the sort of northernmost part of the southern part of the region, if that makes sense. I felt I needed to clarify. I am a geographer, after all.

Yesterday, though, was pretty cool. We had to drive all over Quintana Roo to arrange our schedule (you can tell we're working in rural places without phones) for the coming week, so we went an additional two hours out of our way to see some ruins and the Caribbean Sea. Long, but lovely day!

Tree of the day: orange tree. Unlike pineapples, these do grow on trees! And, we have one in our neighbor's backyard that grows up and onto our roof, where we all like to sit when we're working on our computers. Nothing is ripe on it yet, but it sure smells nice when climbing through it to get on the roof!

If you like piña...

I wasn't going to write again before heading north, but we're still waiting for some forestry supplies and thus, will not be heading north tomorrow morning. Well, we are, but to rearrange our schedule.

Today: easy damage transects! We were in El Bajio, which doesn't have a lot of trees. We had about a third the number of trees to assess in each of two transects. We split into two teams of two, each had an ejidotario, and finished quickly. Bracken fern was easy, too, very condensed. When we finished our work, the ejidotarios offered us some pineapple (piña in Español). As in, fresh picked, wild pineapples. I followed our ejidotario into the plot figuring that pineapple trees would CLEARLY be the tree of the day, but silly me had no idea that pineapples don't grow on trees! The ejidotario kept piling them up in my arms, and talking to me in Spanish no matter how many times I told him during the day, "No hablo Español!" He would smile, then start talking again and giving me more pineapples. Once back at the truck, we immediately ate some. So amazing! (Besides it just being straight up delicious, I have a soft spot for food that is locally grown and organic. This was a beautiful moment for me.)

We got a lesson in Maya language on the way back, which was amusing. The younger of the two ejidotarios was really excited and yelled everything to us. "Yosh bo'otik!" (thank you)

I don't know why I bother sharing our plans for the upcoming days because they change constantly. But, because we didn't receive the tree tags we need for the damage transect work, we're not staying up north starting tomorrow. It's looking like Tuesday to Thursday, and working in Bacalar on Monday. Still heading up north to talk to the comisarios and hammer out a work schedule and check out Maya ruins and the beach at Tulum though... as a consolation prize when we found out the package would not be arriving today as promised and that our plans needed to change, Alex took us to the home of a woman he knows who makes really, really good ice cream. We picked up a container each of vanilla and coconut and enjoyed them very, very much. Fresh pineapple and fresh ice cream. I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Tree of the day: pineapples can hold an honorary position here, but the real title goes to guano trees, which are a kind of palm. They're a pain in the butt to get a DBH for, but hey, I can identify it! We noticed a lot of these around El Bajio today. (And yes, I know that guano means something else in English. Just wait till the boob tree wins the title.)

hint: it's the ITCZ

My morning consisted of sitting in the bed of the pickup truck with Alex and an ejidotario and driving around some of Noh-Bec's better roads in search of bracken. We found and mapped some, but Alex and I also had a good talk about trees and climatology. (If you didn't already know what a huge nerd I am, I guess I just blew it.) I saw a 400 year old Pich tree! And yet, the tree of the day is going to be the Chicle tree, easily spotted due to the diamond shaped slashes in the bark for the purpose of harvesting the sap for chewing gum.

I'm sitting on the roof, watching a pretty awesome lightning storm in the distance. Don't worry, it's so far you can't even hear thunder yet, and there are lots of things around me that are taller than I am... and it's really pretty! As mentioned, in addition to being a tree nerd, I am admittedly a climate nerd. I can tell you all about why the rainy season is about to start in this region... but I'll spare you unless you want to have this conversation. It was pouring when we woke up this morning and it seems like it will rain again tonight. This should make fieldwork more interesting in the next few weeks.

We've finalized our plans for the next few days, so in case you're my parents who just got back from an internet-free weekend in D.C. and you wonder where your daughter is: she'll be in internet-free central Quintana Roo. On Sunday, we're travelling north to visit Maya ruins and the beach at Tulum before settling into the house we're renting for a few days in Laguna Kana. It's got two rooms. I'll be sleeping in a hammock and not posting here. I may have some things to say tomorrow, otherwise, catch you Wednesday or Thursday!

halfway

Right now, Irene and Alex are cooking dinner and I'm playing Christmas music. No real reason. We wanted to eat. We wanted to listen to music. Done and done. Rice, potatoes, plantains, chicken for them, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

We returned to El Gallito to do a damage transect with our friend Primitivo. Afterwards, we went to El Bajio to ask for permission to work their Saturday. They were in the middle of a very large and very heated meeting, but we got permission. They don't really know and don't seem to care what we'll be doing. Alex said we'd pay them, and they promised us two ejidotarios. The forest of El Bajio is very young, and since the minimum diameter at breast height that we consider is 5 cm, we're thinking there won't be a lot of trees for us to assess in these two transects. This leaves us plenty of time to take a tour of their bracken paradise. I'm sure they don't view bracken fern invasion as paradise though. It is really, really extensive.

The two days prior were spent at Juan Sarabia-- you know, the ejido that I am a partial owner of. On Tuesday we were stood up by our ejidotarios but when we stopped by the ejido office on our way home to double-check for Wednesday, we were promised this pair of men who happened to be hanging out behind the Casa Ejido at the time. I can think of two words that well summed up our first impression: old and crotchedy. One was much more vocal than the other. They were not pleased to be told what to do. However, despite our fears for Wednesday, things went very well. Once split up and put in the field to cut a path in the woods and assess the trees with us, they were kind and very helpful.

Three weeks from now, barring any great delays on Continental's part, I will be in New Jersey. In the three weeks since I've arrived, I've learned to identify bracken quickly at a distance (yes, even with my eyes-- it's a weird color and consistency in the landscape), picked up un poquito (a very little bit) Spanish, spent a ridiculous amount of time in the truck, grown quite fond of my rooftop office, and discovered that for 20 pesos more than I paid at the lame laundromat several blocks away, the woman across the street will gladly wash and fold my laundry for me within 24 hours. I think it's going pretty well.

ALSO! I am getting the hang of the trees here and can start sharing a tree of the day with you! I can only hope you're half as excited as I am. For today: the flamboyan (sometimes spelled with a "t" on the end). It's mostly a decorative, probably from India, thinks Alex. We have a few in the median of Avenue Bugambilias and elsewhere around Chetumal. It's very pretty!

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine, thank you.

Have I mentioned that doing damage transects is hard work? And that it takes a long time? And that IT'S HOT IN MEXICO?!

Before I discuss this any further, you should know that while I was not pleased at the time, I am pleased now that it's over and pleased to be sitting on the roof enjoying a nice breeze. However, it's hilarious that 70 degrees feels cool.

We set out at 6AM to an ejido about an hour and a half away called Noh-Bec. The comisario didn't have two ejidotarios ready for us at 7.30, as we'd discussed when we went to ask for permission last week, but promised us two other guys would be ready soon. So at 8 we meet our two guys, whose combined age was still probably younger than 50% of our research team. As Alex put it, "We're giving them a tour of their own ejido." After a couple of hours of off roading searching for the place, we took them back to town and requested someone who actually knew the land, and after waiting a while for someone to finish what they were doing, we were off again, around 11. He lead us to a road that used to exist. An hour of extreme offroading later, we were in the middle of the selva mediana-alta (medium-high forest). The conversation leading up to that moment was along the lines of, let's find the points and come back on Friday to do them. Let's just do bracken today. But upon our arrival at the points, it suddenly changed to, "Let's do this!" A few issues here:

• It was noon. You know, high sun.
• The two damage transects we've completed thus far took over 4 hours each.
• Today's pair of transects were in a forestry ejido. Meaning, there were more trees, bigger trees, and we couldn't use nails to tag the trees.
  
• Fishing line is hard to tie quickly.
• Our "ejidotarios" were obediant but didn't know the trees or the land at all.
  

Alex and Karen took the transect that required a 2 kilometer hike to get to, but I got to take that hike later anyway when Irene and I realized we misplaced our DBH tape (diameter at breast height, it's a snazzy little forestry tool that measures the diameter using the circumfrence). Thankfully, they had an extra, and work carried on. We finished the transects a little after 6, out of water and pretty tired. But they're done! And that felt pretty awesome. Actually, all things considered, we had the weather and the shade in our favor for the most part. High of only 85 today, and a somewhat regular breeze. Glorious. We don't have to go back there again. At least, not till next year. But hopefully I'll actually have graduated with my masters by then. Actually, we do still have to do bracken fern work, but we're going back on Friday and we requested someone a little more familiar with the land...

We got back to Chetumal at 8.30. Long day, but I think we're all feeling pretty accomplished and pretty glad to have that one behind us. Tomorrow we return to Juan Sarabia to do more damage transect work. You may recall this is the ejido that I now co-own with Karen and Irene. It's nearby so we don't have to leave until 7! I might go read a little bit FOR FUN before I go to bed!

short list

I'm exhausted, but a few things of note:

• Our ejidotario yesterday was named Primitivo. For the English translation, exchange the "o" for an "e". A very nice and helpful man in explaining the land use history, but really? What were his parents thinking?
  
• Today was a half-work-day and a relaxing afternoon at Bacalar for the ladies on the team. Good choice.
• This evening, Zach, Marco, Alex, Birgit, Irene and I went out for a little bit. I wasn't that hungry so I tried to order "papa natural" (natural baked potato) and "frijoles with something else" (beans with something else) which Irene went through extensive discussion with our server to find out if there was any meat in the beans. The server said no, we placed the order. I was brought a bean soup with chunks of steak in it.
  
• (A similar event happened at Calakmul, when we asked, "No carne, por favor!" and the lady at the food table assured us, "No carne!" and I got a little grilled plantain packet filled with ground beef. I've been reminded often that the Latin world doesn't understand vegetarianism, though my advisor assured me ahead of time it wasn't a problem, which it mostly hasn't been.)
• Also, the baked potato was COVERED in cheese. So much for natural.
• Overall, a good day. Tomorrow we leave at 6AM for an ejido called Noh-Bec to do some damage transects. There are two that need to be done there, so we're (Karen, Irene, Alex, and me) splitting into two teams of two. It's a forestry ejido... it might take all day to tag and identify the trees, and we can't even use nails.
• Most importantly, I am sitting on my roof, and our "dealer" Doña Rosa across the street (let me be clear, she deals us fresh advocados and clean laundry) is listening to Spanish versions of old Motown hits. I didn't notice this until now, but am super amused now that I have.
  

brick-a-bracken

You know, that might be a good title for my thesis.

Today was devoted entirely to bracken. Karen, Irene and I spent the day in an ejido called Juan Sarabia, whose comisario (sort of commissioner, I guess, the guy who runs the place, the head ejidotario) man named Manuel (I didn't catch his last name). He was very nice when we went to his office this morning to ask permission to do research in his ejido. In fact, his words were, "The ejido is yours!" So we spent the rest of our day surveying our land (for bracken). We found so much of it that it became overwhelming to make maps of, but I think we've got some pretty good information. We'll be going back on Tuesday and Wednesday to do damage transects and get the last few patches of bracken. New photos posted.

The funniest part about my research is that any time we ask an ejidotario about the land and bracken history, they're very nice and helpful, but also kind of confused, sort of, "Why would these girls want to know about this stuff? We already know all there is to know about bracken. It grows everywhere. You burn the land, and snap! It grows back." Most of them say it's been a problem for as long as they've been on the ejido-- the Mexican government encouraged communal farming development in the last 40 years or so as part of conservation efforts. So most people remember bracken when they arrived in the ejido 20, 30 years ago. Ultimately, I'll be looking into other variables as well, but it's been interesting hearing their stories about bracken.

Let me tell you about my truck.

or at least, about driving in Mexico, since I did a bit today and will be doing some more from here out.

Today I got behind the wheel of our year or two old Toyota Hilux (it's called something else in the US, but I'm not sure what). I think this is the nicest and newest clutch I've ever driven on. It's really great, very smooth, except when I was sliding down a hill into some wetlands... but I resolved this with the handbrake trick (see my aunt, my older brother, my mom, or Ross Marshall if you need to be schooled in this, because they are probably the people responsible for me knowing how to do it, though my dad ultimately taught me to drive stick, which ultimately got me invited to Mexico. Thanks everyone!).

So, driving in Mexico. It's on the right and all. Really no different from other places I've driven. It's pretty easy to sum up nearly every car on the roads here: various Toyotas, Nissans, Fords and Dodges that have different names than we know them by in the US, and old VW bugs. Some of the rural roads are a little scary. Various levels of paved and not paved, dirt and rocks, chickens and cows and other hazards... it's interesting. They have speed bumps everywhere... really. Highways, in the city, in the rural towns... everywhere. It's smart, I guess. No one speeds. It's especially smart when they're right before a stop sign or major intersection to ensure that people don't run it. But it's kind of strange to be driving 100km/h and then have a sign warning you that TOPES are coming up, and you need to drop to under 10km/h. Maybe not strange, maybe just different. Everything here is different for me though! And I'm enjoying the adventure.

I think the funniest part, are the street names. Most major roads have names, or at least numbers, but most people just call them "the road from Zoh-Laguna to Nuevo Becal" or something like that. The only street names I know in Chetumal are pretty interesting: we live on Bugambilias (named for a pretty flower that grows in the median), to the east is Quatro de Marzo (March 4th... I wonder what the significance of that date is here?), to the west is Javier Rojo Gomez, and the main boulevard is called Av. Insurgentes. (Even more interesting is the kindergarten on the boulevard that bears its name: Jardin de Ninos Insurgentes. Insurgents Kindergarten.) Yeah.

Today ended up being a 16 hour work day, and we're heading back into the field tomorrow and Saturday. On Sunday, our goal is to work for half a day and then relax a bit, perhaps by the Bahia again or maybe at some Mayan ruins nearby...

damage

The last few days have been pretty busy, though in all sorts of different ways. We spent Monday and Tuesday at Ecosur, doing research and prep work. On Monday, Marco and Zach gave presentations (in both Spanish and English) about the EDGY project to the students (it's just a grad school, so all masters and Phd candidates). Afterward, we finally met Karen, our UVA contingent! The funny part about that (not really funny ha-ha, though we laughed later) is that we had found out upon our return the night before at 8PM from the middle of nowhere, that Karen had arrived at 6AM Sunday morning. No one told us ahead of time! Oh wait, it gets better! Karen actually arrived at 11PM Saturday night in Chetumal. She spent the night in the tiny bus station hoping someone would come for her. We were all in the middle of nowhere though. At 6AM Sunday is when she gave up and checked into a hotel. She was then clever enough to take a taxi to Ecosur first thing Monday morning, at which point, we met her. Crazy, but all's well that ends well, right?

Speaking of all being well that ends well... today was tough! All six of us went into the field together to an ejido called Buena Vista. First task of the day was to complete a damage transect. This is not any of our research specifically, but relates to the overall project and contributes more directly to the primary investigators' own projects. This is why all of the schools were so happy to pay for us to come to Mexico. I won't bore you with all of the details of what a transect is and what it accomplishes, but basically it's compared to satellite data. When a satellite takes a photo of earth, the pictures of a region are taken in a sort of back and forth sweeping motion, like mowing a lawn. We were basically doing this on the ground in a specific place, studying how damaged the trees are and how much they have or have not recovered since Hurricane Dean in 2007, which is EDGY's temporal anchor.

Ok, enough nerd stuff. We did the damage transect for Buena Vista first, tagging and idenfying trees, analyzing damage and resilliance, blah blah blah, and it took way longer than we thought it would. It's not really a job for more than two or three people either, so most of us twiddled our thumbs a lot this morning. After getting all hot and worn out (it was really hot AND humid today and we were in the sun quite a bit), we had lunch, and then dragged our exhausted selves to the other side of the ejido to start working on my bracken at 3PM. A little frustrating to say the least, but we found and mapped the fern in a timely fashion.

However, and you might see this in today's photos and in the days to come... there was a little incident in the process. At one point I was following Alex and our ejidotario guide for the day while the ejidotario hacked a path through the ferns with a machete (don't worry, that's not what gave me the gash on my neck... at least not directly). We got to the end of the area, marked it on the GPS, and turned around, so I was leading us back. Alex warned me to be careful, but didn't quite convey what I should be careful of. I watched my feet as we hiked back, looking up just once to check how far we had to go, at which point I stepped in a hole and caught my neck and chin on a sapling that was just freshly-- and sharply-- cut by a machete only minutes before. Needless to say, a little bit of damage was done, but nothing too significant. See photos. Notice I'm still smiling. Tough day, but valuable. We accomplished a lot, and learned a lot more for upcoming days in the field.

Because Marco and Zach are going off to do their own work for the rest of their time here, we decided to relax in Bacalar together for a while this evening since we won't be working together anymore. We jumped in the bay fully clothed. It was a really relaxing. I tried Modelo Negra, which is Mexico's "dark" beer... aka Mexican lager with a touch of molasses, I hear. Tomorrow will be another day of hard work, but we're getting better prepared for this as we go. We're leaving at 6AM though, so... signing off!

Pich-y keen

The six of us spent the weekend in Campeche with the goal of doing a little GPS training, using the anniversary of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve as a good excuse. Friday was a day of seminars on different conservation research projects going on for the park. However, being that we're Mexico, none of the presentations were in English. By the end of 7 hot hours of presentations, I was a very frustrated girl.

We stayed in Zoh-Laguna this weekend, but since there aren't enough beds there or anywhere, Irene and I were sent over to a hotel. Really, our room was a little hut. It was very cute and very nice, although we found it a little odd that there was no distinct shower or bathtub, just a shower head next to the toilet and a curtain that went around both. Interesting...

Saturday was spent in The Monster, a 1996 or so Chevy Suburban that acts and smells its age. We drove all over the place in and around the town of Xpujil (pronounced Schpoo-heel, it's Maya, as most words with X's in the area are), where Calakmul is, checking some points on a land cover map (think: what kind of stuff is or isn't growing where. This is biogeography. This is kind of what I do.) and basically getting a crash course in local forestry from Birgit. I actually really enjoyed this. We never drove for long, then got out and hiked a little bit, talking about how to characterize different types of tree stands. I know, I know... I'm a nerd.

Today was a similar endeavor, except much, much longer and hotter. The temperatures were well over 100 and we spent over 9 hours in the car, very little getting out and a looking today. It was kind of a wild goose chase to find some types of land cover that we didn't find the day before. Our lunch break was really great though. We ate at a family restaurant in a town called Pich in Campeche. The man who seemed to run the place was very proud of it and would share tidbits about it every time he brought us more lemonade or tortillas. The building we were eating in was a 17th century church. The wooden beams of the ceiling were older than the US. After we finished eating he showed us some photos of some of the oldest families in town and then actually gave us a tour of the little village, taking us down by the Laguna. It was competely dried up. He said there are always turtles there, but not this year. This is the first time in 50 years that it has gone completely dry. At least it's the very end of the dry season at this point; any day now it should start pouring on a somewhat daily basis. Just in time for the intensive field work to start!

A quick language lesson (not even Spanish!): Pich (the town) is named after the Pich tree. There was a really huge, ancient one by the lake but several others around town. The Pich (tree) is named after its seed pod, which is shaped like an ear (which, in Maya, is "pich"). There are a lot of Maya descendents in the southern Yucatan, and we continually encounter them speaking something that the five Spanish speakers I'm working with cannot understand. Every time that happens though, they remember, this must be what Colleen feels like all day every day. And they're right, to a point, but I'm learning... after this weekend, my conservation and forest taxonomy vocabulary has grown quite a bit! (I know, I know... nerd...)

More photos posted!

research update

Today is a work day at Ecosur. I'm pretty sure whatever tan I might have gotten through the intense amount of sunscreen I've been wearing is mostly gone from sitting in the library all day. We got to sleep in a little bit at la Casa amarillo, but we still got up at a reasonable time to enjoy a nice breakfast together: scrambled eggs, hash browns (from scratch!), coffee, juice and awesomely fresh avocado. The entire team (Zack, Marco, Irene, Alex, Birgit and me) met to discuss everyone's individual research and to try and figure out a schedule for the coming weeks. We did pretty well with the first half of that, but there are still some questions about our upcoming plans. For example, who from UVA is going to be joining us, and when will they arrive? This has changed several times. Also, there aren't enough beds here in Chetumal and there aren't any beds at the field house in Zoh-Laguna. The whole team is going to Zoh-Laguna this weekend for some talks for the anniversary of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, one of the two we work with. Are we buying mattresses or staying in a hotel? To be determined. It looks like Irene and I won't be spending much if any time at that house though; priorities have changed a little bit so we're going to spend more time in other areas, perhaps staying in a house in one of thse edjidos in northern Quintana Roo for a week or so. It's hard to organize so many different researchers and projects, but it's coming together.

We almost ran out of water in the house last night. Not the drinking water-- we keep one of those big blue jugs that you see on water coolers handy in our kitchen at all times. I mean the water supply we get from the city once a day. It goes into a tank under our back patio, which we then pump into a tank on the roof, which then goes to the faucets in the house. Of course, there's little other control over it-- we only have hot water in the kitchen, and only cold water in the bathroom. No matter. Point was, the level was really low and we were worried there wasn't enough for my shower. I ended up filling a bucket just to make sure I'd have something to rinse my hair with when finished, but dumping a bucket of water over my head was far more effective than our weak shower has been and I'll probably just do this from now on. Truth is, I was seriously considering a dramatic haircut, because between our low water pressure and the high humidity here, my hair was getting pretty awful to deal with. Necessity is the mother of invention though, and now I'm hopeful that I'll return home unaltered, except the whole more tan/ more blond/ more bug bites thing.

produce and productivity

This update is from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur), in a room that is reminiscent of the Mary Washington cart lab-- people come in, people do work, people drink coffee, there are big windows.

Today we found an ejido in Caan Lumil with many different types of fruits and veggies (plantains, oranges, these little apples, maize) and plenty of invasive ferns. We met some very helpful farmers who shared how long ago different areas were burned, and how they're trying to deal with the fern invasion. It wasn't even on our list of sites to visit, but we spent most of the day mapping it. The sketch got kind of out of control, but I'm going to redraw it tonight. I heard from my advisor, who seems to think I'm doing fine work so far. This is pretty reassuring.

We called it a day a little earlier to try and get the beds from the witch in Bacalar... but no success. However, plans changed at the last minute so only two others are arriving tonight, Zack and Marco from Clark. No one knows if we'll have anyone from UVA or not, or when... so we're making do for now.

We haven't had dinner yet and Alex is being very patient while Irene and I do some work, so I'll just share some photos: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v473/fishius25/Mexico/. Don't worry, I'm not posting every fern photo I take... I'll bake a pie for whoever guesses closest to how many photos of just helechos we have taken so far...

Day two: still no flu!

Hola again from the internet place two houses down from our house in Chetumal! I actually came down here by myself, and asked if I could please use the internet in Spanish by myself (Puedo usar internet, por favor?), and have clearly had success in this endeavor. Now I´m just carefully studying my pesos to make sure I give them the correct one when I´m done. I´m catching on, no matter how slowly.

Day two in the field: Irene, Alex (after four nonstop days together, Alejandro tells us he prefers Alex, and that no one calls him Alejandro) took on some points in the next state west, Campeche. The day started with a meeting with the Primary Investigator of EcoSur, the EDGY university affiliate here in Chetumal. Birgit, a German native, is actually the only PI who will be present in Mexico this summer. (Rutgers, Clark and UVA each have one, too-- my advisor is the one at RU, but none are coming. It´s frightening how much they all appear to trust us.) She gave us some gear and helped us sort out some details for the next few days before we headed out for the day.

We stopped by the field house in Zoh-Laguna in Campeche. It lacks a proper shower and the internet but does have tarantulas! Don´t worry, people rarely see the tarantulas and there is a water spout and some buckets for bathing. The little town was on the way to one of the sites we needed to visit to search for my helechos (ferns, if you haven´t been paying attention). We actually found a lot of helechos today. Irene got some great photos and GPS points while Alex and I climbed into the bush to get details for my sketch maps.

It was really hot out, but today was slightly shorter. At the end of it we spent some time back at Laguna Bacalar, waiting for a woman to get home who is currently holding the rest of the EDGY beds hostage. We just sat on a stone wall near the Fuerte San Felipe eating some pan (bread) we got from a baker across the street since the woman wasn´t there when she said she would be. I guess EDGY rented some beds to her or something, but tomorrow our cohorts from Clark arrive, so we kind of need more than the two beds that Irene and I have been occupying. Tomorrow morning we´re going back to Bacalar for these beds, and if we have success, we´ll spend the day catching up on our computer work here in Chetumal, and I´ll be sure to post some more photos. If the witch, as Alex has come to call her, is not in, we´ll continue north to search for more bracken.

Trial by fire... literally.

My first day in the field started out with two strikes against it. One, Irene and I barely slept last night. By the time we loaded our points into the GPS last night, it was kind of late, but then the neighbors kindly left their dog out last night, and it howled and barked and whined. The. whole. night. Irene was so disoriented that she woke up an hour early at 3.30 and then kindly woke me up as well to make sure I was ready to go in time. So, the day started in a super exhausted way.

Second, and anyone who has ever gone anywhere with me before will not be too surprised: guess who got carsick? We´re at the internet shop two houses down from ours, so I won´t be uploading photos tonight, but when I do in coming days, take a look at the road and you´ll see why. Hours and hours of bumpy, curvy, unpaved roads. Fare thee well, breakfast.

So quite obviously the day started out not in the smoothest way. It was interesting to be in Mayan territority though. We were searching for my fern (helecho) in places several hours north of here and not having much success early on. Eventually we were shown some by a few farmers in one ejido, and then had several more failures, including a multiple mile hike that yielded no results under the high sun. Ugh. We passed some fields that were actually in the process of being slashed and burned, so I learned a bit about the agricultural season. Right now is the typical time to be burning fields, right before the rainy season really gets going. There was evidence of this all over the place.

Eventually we found some large patches along the highway near where we thought we´d find some helechos, though not the exact point. With the help of my cohort and manager, I´ve got some GPS points and some really sloppy sketch maps that I´ll of course go back and correct. Photos to come in days following. All in all, Alejandro, Irene and I spent over 14 hours in the field today, with mixed failures and successes, but we stopped by another lovely lake on the way back to our Casa Amarillo (yellow house). It´s raining pretty hard right now so the heat has broken at least temporarily, so I think I´ll sleep well tonight... if the dog stays quiet...

Hola desde Chetumal!

(Hello from Chetumal!)

Irene and I arrived safely yesterday! I didn't say so sooner because we've been recovering from our travels. We arrived at our house in Chetumal about 24 hours after I woke up to pack and get going. Dad dropped us off at Newark but there was some debacle when all of the flights to Mexico were consolidated and we were not on the final flight. The nice ladies at the check in fixed this, and we were off to Houston. I finished getting my grades in during our layover, and looked up my own final grades on Irene's Blackberry right before we took off, so my semester literally ended as I was about to leave the country. I passed GIS! Moving forward with my life now...

We arrived in Cancun without any problems. The flight was mostly empty so we each had a row to ourselves. Debacle two: the bus from the airport to the bus terminal wasn't running according to schedule because no one is coming to Mexico these days (why?). We ended up taking a rather expensive taxi ride, and then waiting two hours for a bus to Chetumal. We departed at midnight, and five hours later, we met Alejandro, the project manager in the area. He took us to the house and picked us up again around noon to get some things from the market. We slept for maybe 5 hours, and then didn't eat until late in the afternoon, almost 24 hours after our last meal at Houston George Bush International Airport. Ugh.

So today we're feeling a little better rested and we've had more regular meals. We met with Alejandro in the morning to discuss what work needs to be done, and the plan is to start tomorrow at 5AM travelling to an ejido (a sort of farming village-- there's 20 in all that I'll be visiting in the coming weeks) about four hours away. He'll work with us at least the next few days. After we were done talking work, Irene and I took a bus to Bacalar for an afternoon at Laguna de Bacalar, a gorgeous lake. It was a really lovely, relaxing day.

I am slowly learning some important words in Spanish, most notably today: catira (blond). Apparently, it's very obvious that I'm not from around here, and everyone's assumed that Irene is my guide. It's kind of hilarious.

So, things are going just fine so far, except for one very, very important thing that I left in my apartment. Honestly, I was just crushed when I realized forgot it: my Trees of North America: a guide to field identification. So many amazing trees here, and I don't know what any of them are. It's pretty sad.

However, you can see in photos that life has gone on without my tree book: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v473/fishius25/Mexico/

No time like the present...

...to finish packing...

I leave in about an hour to pick up Irene, drive home, and be driven to Newark. Dad's kindly taken the day off to do that. He's not the only one I have to thank for helping keep things under control this week. Mom did most of my laundry (and somehow made my clothes brighter than they've been in ages, it's like magic!). Irene continually picked up the pieces of my overworked brain. The usual suspects met up for another upbeat Monday night. Katie and Jamie came over and scrutinized my exam, causing me to throw out a question and have that much less to grade. Cheryl and Gurzo kindly adopted my eggs and bread so I wouldn't have to throw them out. Tom reminded me not to die. The list goes on. Many others have offered laughter and encouragement, and I can't thank you enough.

So now, I just need to throw together my carry on, take out the garbage, and hit the road!

Swine? It's fine.

So, people have been concerned about this "swine flu".

Well, let me tell you, that is so last week.

But I've got Tamiflu and an enormous bottle of hand sanitizer, as per my doctor's instructions.

Really though, I'm more concerned about finishing grading my students' exams before I go on Friday morning!

next destination: Mexico!

Oh hey!

Some of you may have heard, because I'm excited and tell anyone who even slightly expresses interest in what I'm up to these days: I'm going to Mexico!

For my masters thesis, I'll be studying the bracken fern invasion in the southern Yucatan peninsula and its relationship to fires in the area-- mostly slash and burn agriculture, but potentially with a nod to wildfires/hurricanes too (I can only hope to include natural hazards!). Yes, I am excited! Yes, I will take pictures! No, I do not speak Spanish! Thankfully, I have been teamed up with my fellow geographer Irene, whose Spanish is exponentially better than mine (she's from Venezuela). She's going to be doing some preliminary work for her Phd dissertation, too. I'll drive the truck, she'll speak the Spanish. It should be pretty excellent!

Right now my life is a whirlwind of grading my students' exams and getting all of the things I need before I leave on Friday morning. Many thanks to my kind mother for doing my laundry and my kind father for taking the day off to drive my research cohort and me to the airport!

rabid excitement!

As my trip to Mexico draws slightly nearer, we're beginning to discuss the details. I meet next Tuesday with Laura and my friend Irene, who is Laura's GA, who will be going to Mexico with us, who will be my partner in crime. Laura is from Colombia and Irene is from Venezuela, so at least I'll have help with the Spanish (funny how 9 years of German and a year of Mandarin won't be the least bit useful for this adventure).

In the meantime, in sharing my excitement about this trip with a few people, a biology teacher I sing in choir with at church reminded me to look into malaria medication. Oh yeah. I like to think that would have occurred to me without her suggestion, but it was a good suggestion anyway. The only other countries I've been to so far are not known for malaria, or really anything else in particular (except maybe Mad Cow?). I looked up some information on the CDC website, only to find that I need a few vaccinations in addition to malaria meds: Hepatitis A, rabies and typhoid.

This is just one of the things I need to address in the next six or fewer weeks before I go. We'll be hammering out some more specific details on Tuesday, but this trip is going down sometime in the next month and a half!

Español 101

Today, I went to Pennsylvania to my cousin's house to celebrate my uncle's 70th birthday. I always enjoy seeing my family, and it turns out that Kathie and her family aren't that far away from me here in Highland Park.

Upon my return home, I found that my roommate had put Post-It notes all over our kitchen and the contents of our refrigerator to teach me the Spanish words for things. She's Puerto Rican, so she's really excited for an excuse to teach me Spanish. Let's be honest, I probably would have picked up some eventually anyway, but this Mexico trip with the EDGY project is a pretty exciting reason to learn immediately!

Where in the world is... someone else?

The first video on this page was playing on a huge screen in Times Square while I was in the city yesterday evening with my friend Tom. We'd gone to see a show, and it was short so we had a bit of time to wander around afterward and still make the train back to Jersey. I just thought this video was so happy! Also, I am super envious of this guy's grand adventures. Just you wait though, I'm going to have my own adventures!

exciting and edgy upcoming adventure!

This is pretty exciting news!

After a bit of panic about what courses to take this semester and what direction my thesis work might take, I landed a really sweet field research gig for a chunk of the summer. My advisor, Laura Schneider, had mentioned offhandedly in the past that she might be happy to bring me onto her research, the EDGY project in the southern Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. She looks at land use change, among other things, but a lot of the foundation work for the project includes biogeography and soil stuffs.

She needs someone to do some vegetation mapping for her this summer. She was going to hire someone down there, but then remembered that I might be having a panic attack about my thesis by now, and am interested in this sort of thing and have a small amount of experience in it, too. The conversation went thusly:

"Do you have a driver's license?"
"Yes."
"Can you drive stick shift?"
"YES!"
"Then we would really like you to come to Mexico with us."

Fully funded, at least three weeks of wandering around forests in the Southern Yucatan, near the borders of Guatemala and Belize, with Mayan ruins in the middle of the field site. I'll be driving a truck they have down there, exploring the area and what's growing in it (specifically looking for the bracken fern but making note of the other plantlife, too).

!!!

More to come in the months following. We'll talk more as the end of the semester draws nearer. Meanwhile, I'm going to continue to jump up and down a bit about this.

mega musings

Timmy, one of my fellow Boston New Years celebrants, called me yesterday to ask if I could possibly drive him to Philadelphia airport today, since his family is all sorts of under the weather and his winter semester at St. Olaf starts tomorrow. Possibly? Of course! For one, this child is like a little brother. Secondly, when am I not game to drive places that I've never been before, really? I'm never too excited about interstates, particularly I-95, because you don't get to see as many interesting things as you might driving on more local roads. However, it's really the most logical/only way to get to Philadelphia airport. And so we went.

We took Route 70 straight through the Pine Barrens. I love the Pine Barrens. Pitch pines, the predominant tree in the region, are really kind of ugly, but there's something lovely about the vastness of it (similar to my impression of the Canadian prairies). There really is quite a bit of biodiversity. It's one of those situations where you can't judge a book by its cover. And speaking of books, I'm currently reading John McPhee's Pine Barrens for the gajillionth time. It's so good. If you have any level of respect for New Jersey, you should read it sometime. And if you don't... go away. Now.

It doesn't take long to cross New Jersey from the Atlantic to the Delaware. We crossed the Walt Whitman Bridge and got to Phila Airport in good time. We figured we could find some cafe or restaurant and grab an early dinner before he peaced out from the east coast for five months, but lo and behold, there is not a single eatery before security (at least in the D and E terminals, which we wandered through). What the--?!

I understand why security is so intense at airports nowadays (like that time I had to forfeit my shoes for analysis at Newark Airport...), but I was really disappointed in being unable to share a last meal with my friend before his trip. We ended up taking over a bench next to security and people watching until Timmy needed to get going. It was interesting seeing people separating and reuniting, it was like an emotional funhouse in there. We were at terminal E, which is Northwestern and Southwestern airlines. People were going all over the US from where we were. There were lots of pictures being taken, and I thought it awkward to be in the background of people's pictures, kind of like being immortalized in photo albums on their coffee tables and bookshelves forever in a weird sort of way. It's kind of amazing how interconnected everything and everyone really are.

Of course, I realized that with this little trip out to Philly, I have toured pretty much all of the US's Megalopolis in the last week. I've been from south of Richmond, Virginia to Boston, almost all via I-95. Overdevelopment makes me a little nauseas, but I find an interesting juxtaposition between the way the northeast corridor lights up in NASA's nighttime pictures and the very dark drive through the Pine Barrens on my way home from the airport.

New Years in Boston: Don't Expect the Expected

Happy New Year.

I spent mine snowed in up in Boston, where I decided to go for a quick trip with a few friends because I've never been there and the weather report was clear until at least today. We left after lunch on the 30 and returned this afternoon due to some unexpected weather. Overall impression: I dig the city and want to visit again... but maybe not during a snow storm!

We got up to the city around dinner time, checking into our hotel in Framingham and eating the dinner we packed before wandering around in the vicinity of Commonwealth Avenue. The trees were all lit up for Christmas along the walk in the center of the avenue. I was immediately taken with how pretty the architecture in the city is. I like the patterns that many of the buildings maintain while being somewhat unique from their adjoining structures.

Kevin, Timmy, Jessica and I started our New Year's Eve with the intention of starting at the Boston Common and following the Freedom Trail and stopping at a few museums along it. We farfed around the Public Garden for a bit as it began to snow a little, jumping into empty fountains to get photos with the statues. The snow began to stick a little bit but we weren't worried, until the three of them launched themselves into the last fountain before crossing back over to the Common, which wasn't empty, but had a thin layer of ice, dusted with snow, covering a few inches of water. Jessica caught herself before flying ankle deep into cold water; Kevin and Timmy got their feet wet. This put our adventure on the wrong foot...

After sitting in Kevin's car with the heat on and getting dry socks, we ventured back out. The snow had picked up quite a bit, but we decided to try to take on the Freedom Trail. We wandered through the Boston Common and then went down Joy Street to the Afro-American History Museum. It was nice to be warm and inside the historic schoolhouse, but the snow really picked up, prompting us to cancel our New Year's Eve plans at home and to call our parents and have them look up hotels in the city for us. We got a room at a hotel within city limits (Framingham is about half an hour outside Boston) and went to check in and move the car. The room had a lovely view of the Charles River, so we took a stroll along that, half playing in the snow and half looking for transit stops. Our feet were pretty cold and wet by then so we took another break, having Chinese food for lunch in the hotel (with the added attraction of a man selecting one of the live fish, and hearing it flop about as it was pulled from the tank behind me) before taking a bus and then the T back into center city.

We took the orange line down to Massachusetts Avenue in attempt to see the Harriet Tubman House, as per the boys' intense wishes, only to discover it was a community center named for the heroine, not actually her house. So, orange line back up near the Common and back on the Freedom Trail after getting some DD, but the sun was setting and our feet were not drying. We saw a few sites: Park Street Church, Old State House, Fanueil Hall... but started our chilly trek back to the hotel not too much later.

This morning was clear as a bell but absolutely frigid: 7 degrees Fahrenheit and quite windy. As a result, we drove around Boston instead of walking a bit more before heading home. I continued to be in awe of the historic architecture, and also enjoyed passing by the wharfs (wharves?). This was only meant to be a quick visit to begin with, but turned into a quick visit over a few days. I'm looking forward to going back one day.